Last day!
Trip Start
Dec 15, 2009
1
36
Trip End
Jan 21, 2010
Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
According
to CNN's “expert” weatherpersons it was supposed to be slightly
cloudy today - imagine our surprise when we awoke to a fine misty
drizzle.
We
had decided to go back to Parque del Retiro to see the Statue of the
Fallen Angel that we had somehow missed yesterday. We stopped for
breakfast at a random coffee shop that Darren selected where Penny
had a nice ham and cheese omelette slice and Darren had his usual
Neopolitana pastry with a coffee. Suitably refreshed we headed back
to the statue, getting damp without getting drenched, and admired the
fine monument. The statue on top is very cool: Lucifer looks pretty
unhappy bout being chucked out of heaven. At the bottom are some
lesser imps and demons which are munching on a selection of snakes
and crocodiles. Very cool but difficult to photograph in the
semi-darkness and drizzle.
We
wandered back and went to Caixa Forum which is sort of like a museum
of modern art. The building stands out as one wall is covered in
plants (like a vertical garden), the top floors are a distinctive
rust colour and the floor level is cut way so it looks like it is on
a stump.
We
walked in up the stainless steel stairs and entered without any
hassle (since it's free), checked out the view from the first floor
and admired their fine purple sofas. We then found the main exhibit
was closed so went up to the next floor (along with a school group
getting a dose of culture) to see a photographic and film exhibition
by Hannah Collins.
One
the films was on five screens and about the largely gypsy barrio in
Barcelona, another was on three screens about African immigrants in
Madrid, London and Rome and the last was on the local population of
Novrogod in central Russia (only two screens for this one).
They
were all very original but probably would have been better if we
understood Spanish.
We
walked back to Paseo del Prado and decided the metro would be the way
to go to get to the other side of town. We jumped on an exceedingly
full train then changed at Tribunal and got off at Plaza de Espana
(which is just around the corner from Palacio Real). The plaza here
is also very nice and has a big monument to Cervantes, with a bronze
statue of Don Quixote and Sancho on one side. We left just as a huge
group of reasonably unimpressed looking Japanese tourists jumped out
of their warm bus and into the drizzle.
We
walked along Gran Via to the pedestrian shopping area and took refuge
from the rain in the El Corte Ingles department store, where we did a
small amount of gift shopping and Penny looked unsuccessfully for a
Vespa bag that she should have bought when she first saw it in Italy.
By the time we left the rain had slackened off so we made our way
back to the sandwich place we had visited yesterday for lunch and
chose our own six rolls along with a plate of fries and some
sangria/beer. Very yummy. Today we noticed that English speakers
outnumbered Spanish speakers in the restaurant, possibly highlighting
the joy of not having to talk at all when ordering a meal.
Deciding
to get some shopping done we perused the many tourist shops along
Plaza Mayor and all the way back to Plaza del Sol. We bought many
interesting tourist items for our relatives (mostly small relatives –
adults on Penny's side of the family in particular should not get
excited) who will receive these upon our return. So no hints.
We
stopped for a chocolate and churros at a nice place down a small side
street and found them to be far better than the lot we had in
Barcelona as we were left not feeling bloated and ill. They were
almost as good as the ones we had in Adelaide.
Darren
also got himself a t-shirt and some posters for his office, while
just around the corner from the hostal Penny finally found the
elusive Vespa bag along with a funky purse.
After
all the miles we covered we unloaded our stuff back at the room and
Darren had a celebratory Fanta and typed up the blog while Penny went
out and did a bit of window shopping.
Penny
returned empty-handed, having strayed into an area with a lot of
embroidered fabric and wide-legged pants and therefore not having
found much to buy. A lot of packing ensued, and then we went out for
the last dinner of our holiday. It was at a bar around the corner
called Tia something, and consisted of roasted capsicums, meatballs
and Iberian ham (and mostly potato) croquettes, accompanied by a
couple of beers (Darren) and a couple of red wines (Penny). Most
satisfactory. We then walked to the metro station to buy our airport
supplements so we wouldn't have to deal with that with backpacks on
tomorrow (we weren't quite sure what we had to do) and then finished
the evening with an ice cream. Well, we have only diets and
alcohol-free days/weeks/months to look forward to when we get back!
